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Committee recommends FY26 supplemental to keep five Head Start nurses after federal grant cut
Summary
A Montgomery County triple committee unanimously recommended a $252,274 FY26 supplemental appropriation to replace a federal grant reduction that would otherwise jeopardize nursing services supporting Head Start classrooms and nine school sites.
The Triple Committee (Government Operations, Health & Human Services, and Education & Culture) voted unanimously to recommend to the full Montgomery County Council an FY26 supplemental appropriation of $252,274 to fund five contractual school health nurses who support the county’s Head Start program. Nicole Rodriguez Hernandez, council staff, told members the request followed an executive transmittal and a federal reallocation that reduced the grant delegation to local schools.
"The county executive transmitted a supplemental appropriation request totaling $252,274 due to a grant reduction affecting the Department of Health and Human Services and their school health services," Rodriguez Hernandez said during the packet presentation. She detailed that last year MCPS provided about 648 Head Start seats and that the newly approved grant supports about 450 seats, a change tied to updated federal guidelines limiting delegate agency allocations to 50%. The council staff briefing flagged a 43% drop in grant totals from fiscal year 25 to 26 and said the five contractual nurses are currently funded by temporarily reallocated internal DHHS funds.
Dr. Bridgers, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, urged the committee to help address the gap. "This is where we need your help to address those grant funds that need to be adjusted," the director said, adding that the department assembled a team to provide granular answers about realignment and service impacts. Grace Pedersen from the Office of Management and Budget described the metrics OMB uses to evaluate supplementals, including timing, legal mandates, service interruption risk, and disproportionate harm to underserved communities.
Committee members pressed for more context about enrollment and long-term strategy. Anais, Senior Administrator for Early Childhood Services, said the grant requires serving the approved number of children—450 in MCPS and 75 community-based seats—and acknowledged enrollment uncertainty driven in part by community fear and pending federal guidance. Council member Lukey said she would support the supplemental but reiterated earlier requests that the county executive provide a holistic approach to recurring grant reductions.
The committee’s recommendation to forward the supplemental to the full council was recorded as unanimous across the three committees present; individual roll-call tallies were not provided in the packet. Chair Sales asked that OMB and HHS provide a memo outlining the county’s approach to piecemeal federal grant clawbacks for the public record. The full council will consider the appropriation at its next meeting.
